Public misses out when board debates issues at agenda briefings

Published: Sunday, September 15, 2013 at 7:52 p.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, September 15, 2013 at 7:52 p.m.

When area elected leaders meet under the lights and cameras to vote, it is rarely the first time they have met to discuss the agenda.

Both New Hanover County Commissioners and Wilmington City Council members routinely hold more informal agenda briefings ahead of regular board meetings. The elected officials use the briefings to review each agenda item and ask staff questions.

Yet those questions often lead to discussion and can drift into debate, said Wilmington Councilman Neil Anderson, who has encouraged his colleagues to limit discussion at the briefings. Anderson said he was motivated in part by hearing critics say the council just "rubberstamps everything" at its Tuesday night meetings.

"I wish the public could hear the debate," Anderson said.

He is not alone in his concerns.

Councilwoman Laura Padgett agrees that the meetings are not the proper forum for debate, "because there isn't enough public attention," she said.

She worries about the public missing out on the presentations the council hears at agenda briefings.

"The public deserves to know what's provided to us in those presentations and what our reactions to those are," she said. Still, she understands not every presentation is necessarily equal. For example, on Monday, the council is set to hear two– updates on riverfront park improvements and on lighting the Kenan Memorial Fountain, two issues Padgett said are not as susceptible to transparency concerns.

But that isn't always the case.

In January, Police Chief Ralph Evangelous appeared at an agenda briefing to formally present a plan to create and deploy a special force to combat crime across the city. Padgett said that presentation should have been at a regular Tuesday night meeting, which is filmed and aired on GTV8, the city's television channel. (The team, known as the "mobile field force," was later approved by the council).

City Manager Sterling Cheatham has told council members the presentations following the agenda meetings are designed to gauge their initial reactions before it comes before them formally.

County commissioners' Chairman Woody White recalled a past agenda review where the commissioners had a lengthy, in-depth discussion about school safety. But few residents were at the meeting, he recalled, and it was not aired on television. Ideally, he said the agenda reviews will be more limited in scope.

"I think we have made more of an effort to handle administrative matters in agenda review and leave most of the policy discussions to the full meeting," he said.

Last year, when the Leland Town Council started holding agenda review meetings, Town Manager David Hollis made sure to point out that the meetings were not for debate.

Hollis stressed that the council members should wait until their regular Thursday meetings, which are held monthly. "If they started to get into that debate back and forth, I'll remind them then, let's hold that debate until Thursday night," Hollis said.

The agenda meetings are not without purpose. A pre-meeting gives staff some time to find answers to address questions from board members. Hollis sees them as valuable because the council members make better informed decisions.

Leland started holding the agenda meetings ahead of time so their Thursday meetings would go faster.

Padgett understands no one wants to see Wilmington's meetings go to midnight. But she thinks council members could pay closer attention to wading into policy discussions in the agenda meetings. But limiting discussion can be difficult.

"This is a problem that nobody has a very good solution to," Padgett said.